Rare London performance from Mancunian Prog-Rock pioneers. Enigmatic as ever the trio continue to confound expectations a full six years after the original 1968 band’s reunion concert in 2005 which sold out in days and drew an audience from 28 countries.
Their epic songs, symphonic key changes, bewildering time signatures, archane lyrics and extended jazzy extemporisations continue to amass a cult following.
With the release of A Grounding in Numbers , their second CD as a trio, Peter Hammill (vocals, guitar, piano), Hugh Banton (organ, bass pedals) and Guy Evans (drums) emphatically show that their eyes are set more upon the present and future than the past, while acknowledging that they will always trail a certain history in their wake.
Name-checked as an influence by fans John Lydon, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Graham Coxon, and opening for Jimi Hendrix in 1969, Van De Graaf Generator is a band like no other, with a career trajectory in which surprise has become the norm.
Their last Barbican show (2007) was one of the season’s hottest tickets – book ahead to avoid disappointment.
'Kierkegaard crossed with Edgar Allan Poe' MOJO and Q Classic